Qatar Airways will defer delivery of its A380 superjumbos until it gets more details about wing cracks on the Airbus aircraft, its chief executive said on Monday.
European air safety regulators ordered checks in February for Airbus A380 wing cracks for the entire superjumbo fleet after safety engineers found cracks in almost all the planes inspected.
"We'll have to defer delivery of the A380 until more details are clear," chief executive Akbar al Baker said at a Dubai travel show.
Qatar has an order for five A380 aircraft pending. Al Baker also said the airline would imminently order 10 aircraft from Canadian planemaker Bombardier Inc. to bolster its corporate jet business. The order is valued at $700 million.
"We are imminently going to order ten Bombardier planes...for our corporate jet business."
The airline operates a corporate jet business, Qatar Executive, and has expressed interest in Bombardier CRJ jets. Al Baker said last month Qatar had however suspended discussions to buy Bombardier's larger CSeries, which aims to compete with the best-selling models of medium-haul Airbus and Boeing jets.
Source: Reuters
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